making love in history
by xjustmexx
Summary: When general Iroh and Asami offend the spirits, they are sended back in time to restore a love which was meant to be... story written in co-operation with Genora Loe, zutara and irosami shipping.
1. Oh, Spirits

**Category: Avatar: The last airbender and The Legend of Korra**

**Authors: xjustmexx and Genora Loe**

**Pairing(s): zutara and irosami **

******Disclaimer:** The Avatar world and characters belong to Mike Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

**AN: I just want to highlight that all of this story is written in cooperation with Genora Loe. We worked the idea and story out together and will also continue writing together. So... here it is! Our first fanfic. We would really appreciate it if you guys left a review with your comments. Also keep in mind that we are both not native English speakers, so if we make any hughe grammar or spelling mistakes, please forgive us for it and point it out in a review. Thanks for reading. :D**

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Chapter 1: 'Oh, Spirits!'

'Come on Iroh! Make an end to my suffering!' I begged with a sad face.  
Iroh rolled his eyes. 'Oke then, I'll do it for you'  
Giggling I watched Iroh standing up as he walked towards Mako, Bolin and Korra.  
He yawned excessively and told them it had been a long day and we were about to take a rest now.

I didn't miss Korra's smirk. While passing by she said a loud 'Oeoeoeh', so I poked her and whispered: 'Jealous?'

Korra narrowed her eyes. 'Of course not. Your little Iroh can't make up to my Mako.'

From the moment Iroh and I were out of the sight of the guards, we ran giggling through the palace. We walked through a few corridors, untill Iroh pulled me in the smallest room I had ever seen. We barely fitted in it together, but it was way more exciting than it had been before.

'I can't see a thing', I laughed.

'That's the whole idea.' In no time Iroh's mouth was everywhere. I felt his cold hands under my shirt.

'Wait.' I commanded wheezy.

'What is it?' asked Iroh between 2 kisses without even looking at me.

'Do you really, really want this? I mean, I thought you didn't want to make love untill we were engaged.'

Iroh laid his head against mine and kissed me. I felt his hands on my buttocks, moving down. A little shiver went down my spine, making me lose myself.

'Oh, Spirits, I have waited for this such a long time. I have always wanted you.'

Suddenly, the ground under our feet began moving, untill it disappeared and we were falling for minutes. 'Let them go.' I heard a deep voice saying.

Next to me, Iroh gasped. ' Grandfather?'

Then the blackness around us went white, till I hit something what had to be the ground and I lost consciousness.

I woke up next to Iroh, who didn't regained his consciousness yet. I looked around me and noticed we were suddenly in some kind of forest. While I tried to remember how the hell I got here, Iroh gave a first sign of life and got up slowly. I was still lying on the ground and followed his example. He first asked a thousand times if I was okay and then apologized another ten times before he noticed that we weren't in the palace anymore.

"Where are we? This isn't the palace anymore," he said.

" Thanks for that clever remark," I said a little annoyed . He ignored me and took a good look around, while he admired the beauty of the forest and tried to guess where we were. After a few minutes of naming all the forests he knew in the fire nation he finally gave up so I could think clearly. Iroh stood still and was clearly also lost in his thoughts. After a few minutes of desperately going through my memory and going over all the possibility's I finally gave up and sank to the ground with a deep sight.

Iroh looked a little troubled at me and seated himself next to me. He looked at me briefly and put his arm around me while he hugged me tightly.

'It's all going to be alright', he whispered comforting in my ear. This, however, didn't send me to ease and I freed myself from his grasp.

'I don't need you to say things which you don't know. I can take care of myself. I thought I made that clear before', I said a little angry. He grinned slightly and said:

'Of course I know that, so what are we going to do, strong, independent women?'

I smiled over his sarcasm, but the smile faded away as quickly as it came because I had absolutely no idea how to answer his question. His expression also went gloomy and he let out a deep sight.

'I suggest we walk around a bit, it can't hurt and this forest has to end somewhere', Iroh suggested. I nodded in response and he helped me up.

We walked a little while in silence, each of us had his own thoughts to keep themselves busy. I tripped a few times over a few tree roots, but most of the time I could regain my balance before smashing into the ground. Every time Iroh made sure, with excessive concern, that I was alright before he would walk any further. We kept walking for hours and had still seen no sign of any house or person, although for a moment I really thought I saw someone, which somehow looked familiar.

'Let's stop, this obviously has no use at all. There is no end to this forest!' I said frustrated.

Iroh stopped and turned to me. 'Everything has an end you know, nothing lasts forever.' After that he walked towards me and seated himself against a tree. I sat next to him. ' Let's give it a break for today and enjoy the beauty and silence of the forest', Iroh said.

I nodded in response and went a little closer to him. This comforting silence however didn't took long, cause after a few minutes we heard something coming toward us. Iroh immediately jumped up and went in fighting stand, ready to attack if necessary. He tried to shove me behind him, but I refused to be a spectator. I could see slices of red between the green leafs of the plants, and soon after that a whole dragon appeared. He didn't looked angry or dangerous, mostly because of his magnificent beauty. Immediately when he saw the dragon, Iroh dropped down to his knees and bowed his head.

'Fang,' he whispered.

Confused, I looked at the enormous creäture right in front of me, and then back at Iroh, who still sat respectful in the mud. Fang turned his head extremely slow at me, a flurry of recognition going threw his eyes. he stepped closer to me and pushed his nose gently against my knees. I could feel its warm breath against my bare skin and felt my heart beating very fast. 'Iroh,' I whispered threw my teeth. 'what does it want me to do?'

Iroh glanced at me from his corners of his eyes. 'Sit down', he said.

The moment my knees hit the dirty ground, Fang stepped back and let his whiskers touch my forehead. A weird feeling I couldn't describe settled in me, making me feel a bit dizzy and light-headed. Then everything went dark, till I saw 2 people run in a small corridor. They were giggling and went into a sort of a closet. They began kissing each other on every spot they could reach, till the girl interrupted her lover and asked this was really what he wanted. The boy didn't answer, but reached for her buttocks. Then a loud scream echoed in my head. 'Oh, Spirits...'

Subsequently I saw a girl with pinned black hair and an angry face running trough a giant red room. The room was filled with fire. 'Dad,' she screamed. 'Zuko's grandson is playing around in MY room!'

Right when the tall man wanted to answer, the image blurred again and now we saw two people fighting, under which the angry girl. A girl with deep blue eyes and white hair was sitting next to them, obviously crying. Then an old women with grey hair and a wrinkled face walked slowly towards them and raised her hands. The fighting girl fell headlong and didn't move anymore.

The boy who the girl was fighting, ran away, straightly towards a bald guy with a lot of orange cloths, he was reading a stack of papers. The boy sat next to him, his jaw working. 'You have to do me a favor,' he said. 'Azula has convinced my father to punish my grandson and his girlfriend because they were kind of playing in my sisters closet.'

Then we saw the boy and the girl of the closet again, falling this time. When they woke, they were sitting in a sort of giant, moist forest. They decided exploring it and ran away, just before four people stepped out of the shadows of the big trees. When they notice the boy and the girl were gone, they send a giant red dragon to search them.

The next moment everything went dark again. When my vision returned, Iroh stood up and climbed the back of the dragon, looking a bit ashamed, but determined. His gaze crossed mine, and now I also recognized a bit of fear, which was completely new for me, I had never seen Iroh afraid of something before.

I decided to follow Iroh's example climbing Fangs back and soon we were flying high above the trees. 'I had to recognize it from the moment I saw it. We are in the Foggy Swamp. My grandfather used to talk about it when I was a kid and I couldn't get asleep. He hasn't been here himself, but his friends did.'

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**So... what do you think of it? Pleasssssssse leave a review ;) We have no idea how long this fanfic will be, we'll just continue writing. :D**


	2. When Spirits meet

Chapter 2: When spirits meet.

I sat silently behind Iroh as the dragon flew forward, my arms wrapped tightly around his waists. I really wanted to inform him about the things I had seen and ask him what he knew about the foggy swamp, but it just felt disrespectful to talk around the magnificent creature. Fang flew smoothly through the sky, and I was overwhelmed with admiration about his measures and beautiful wings. We continued flying like that for a while.

At a certain moment I noticed the huge tree in the center of the forest. Somehow it looked like it was our final destination. Well, I was almost right about that, but as we moved closer to the tree, it disturbed me that Fang didn't reduced his speed. On the contrary, his speed increased at such a high level I had to clamp on to Iroh, if I didn't want to be blown away by the wind.

In front of me Iroh also tightened his grip on Fangs scales. We flew right at the tree, and I let out a small cry of fear as we were going to bump into it. This, however, didn't happen. We flew right through it and found ourselves in a forest which resembled, but wasn't quite the same, as the Foggy Swamp.

Iroh looked back to make sure I was alright, I nodded in response to his questioning look. At that moment I noticed that the color of the Fangs scales had changed, from fire red to ice blue. Iroh saw the surprised look on my face and I could see his eyes widen when he saw it.

'The spirit world', he whispered, just loud enough for me to hear.

I shook my head. This didn't make any sense at all, normal people couldn't travel between the 2 worlds, only the Avatar could.

Fang brought us to an open spot between the trees and landed there. As we got off his back, I noticed two people standing in the mud. I had seen them both in the vision Fang gave me, it were the monk in his orange clothes and the boy, who the angry girl had been fighting. The monk headed toward Fang and rubbed gently over his nose.

Iroh got off a little slower than me and I heard his feet landing on the ground behind me. He came standing next to me, waiting for one of the two strangers to speak. This however, took a while, cause as the monk continued rubbing Fangs nose, the boy just stood there with a smirk on his face.

The boy had a great resemblance with Iroh and was slightly familiar with me. As he turned his head, we could see the left side of his face for the first time. The famous scar which drew his way around the boy's left eye, made us both gasp for breath in surprise. It was no one less than Fire Lord Zuko!

'Grandfather? What are you doing here? You can't be here, you're still alive! And why do you look so... young?' Iroh exclaimed.

The Fire Lords smirk widened a little as he responded: 'You and Miss Sato are also under the living and yet, here we are. Oh, and I also want to thank you for the compliment. The Spirits World doesn't exactly make me look older, does it?'

'Oh come on, Zuko, we haven't got all day you know', the monk said. He also turned to face us, and the idea appeared to me that the monk had to be avatar Aang, the one Zuko asked for help.

All of the sudden, Zuko got very serious and nodded. 'Okay, I think there must be going a lot of questions through your heads, so please, let me explain. First of all, it wasn't us who called you here. Azula and her dad did.'

I noticed Zuko said 'her dad', while it was also his father. I wondered why that was and looked at Iroh, hoping to find the answer to my curiosity there, but it seemed like he only saw his grandfather in front of him. It must have been a long time since the two of them met each other, and probably also in very different circumstances.

'The closet you were playing around, kind of belonged to Azula when she still lived in the palace, so she wasn't very pleased to see you two picking exactly THAT spot to...'

'Please, Zuko, I think they understand, just go on now', Aang interrupted him with a little blush on his cheeks.

'What is it, Twinkle Toes? You don't like to talk about "what happens between the sheets of the beds"?' A girl I recognized from the vision stepped forward to us. Her laugh echoed through the forest.

'Toph, please, stop teasing him that much', some other girl with long, brown hair answered her, also with a blush on her cheeks.

According to her milky green eyes, there was no doubt the first girl, who appeared to be Toph, was blind. Still she walked straightly to us without going down.

'Thanks, Katara. Now, go on, Zuko', Aang said relieved.

Zuko sighed and went on at Aangs request. 'So, whatever you were doing in that closet, Azula didn't like it, so she asked her dad to punish you. As you probably know, Ozai died a few years ago, and now his spirit lives on in the Spirits World. It was him who teleported you here and fended you for yourselves. But Azula couldn't resist telling me her evil plans. She thought all help would come to late anyway, so I would only feel more bad if I knew it was going to happen and couldn't do anything to prevent it. I knew better and told her that help would probably come just in time for you instead. Knowing her plan would fail, she attacked me. I almost thought she was going to kill me, when all of the sudden Hama's spirit appeared and presented me with enough time finding Aang by bloodbending Azula. Aang guided us all to the Spirits World and asked Fang to find you and then...'

'I'm sorry, I don't want to interrupt you, but I think you forgot to explain something.' I said.

'I'm sorry? What did you say?'

'I think you forgot to explain something', I repeated confounded. 'Why was the girl with the deep blue eyes and white hair crying next to your fight?'

I heard Katara gasped for breath. 'Yue', she whispered.

Zuko looked at me in surprise. 'The Spirit of the Moon? I'm very sure she wasn't there when me and Azula were fighting, let alone she was crying. What makes you think she was?'

'I thought I saw her in the vision Fang gave us.' I answered hesitatingly.

'I didn't see her.' Iroh said.

'Oh, then I must have seen it wrong. I'm very sorry of interrupting you, Your Highness. You can go on, it won't happen again.'

'No problem, Asami. So, I was telling Fang was looking for you and brought you to the Spirits world as well. Of course, since this is where Ozai's spirit is staying, you won't be safe here for long neither. Then my mom came with the great idea to send you back in time for a while, since that is the only place you're safe from Azula and Ozai.'

I opened my mouth to complain, but shut it again when I remembered my promise of a minute ago. Fortunately, Iroh hadn't made such promises.

'But you can't do that to us! We'd rather live in danger than in the past!' he shouted.

'It's only temporary', Toph reminded us. 'Till we got Azula and Ozai to repentance and you can make love wherever you want again.'

'Toph, please', Aang entreated.

'How long will we be in the past?' I asked worried.

Zuko hesitated. 'A month?'

Suddenly I really needed to sit down, I didn't care if the mud would ruin my dress. I just had to sit down, giving myself time to comprehend what was about to happen to us. When I touched the ground, I was surprised how dry it felt. As I looked down, I saw all the water had been poured away. As I finally understood what made this happen, I smiled politely at Katara, and I got a 'You're welcome'-smile back.

'We will send you 60 years back in time, so maybe you will see us all as we were just as old as you now', Katara tried to cheer us up.

'Of course that doesn't mean we'll know you, so don't talk to us. Talk to nobody, actually. Just stay inside and don't come out', Zuko added.

'We have to hide for a month?' I asked miserably.

'You have to look at the bright side: You'll have plenty of time for closet parties!' Toph laughed.

Aang brought his hand to his forehead and moaned.

'We'll leave you alone for a minute. You can tell us if you're ready to go', Katara took Aangs hand and walked away slowly, followed by Zuko and Toph.

When they were out of sight, Iroh took a seat next to me in my dry circle. A long silence fell as I laid my head on his shoulder. Eventually he stood up again and held out his hand at me. 'You're ready?'

'I'm ready.'

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**AN: Our second chapter... Hope you liked it! Since Genora Loe wrote the majority, it will be my turn in the next one. Be sure to leave a review! We would really appreciate it! The next chapter will probably be posted in the next two days.**


	3. Old friends

**AN: So here is a new chapter! I hope you guys enjoy :D This actually was a difficult one to write. But after some consultation we managed to do it ;) (although I think my math grades will suffer) Anyways, enjoy reading! **

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Chapter 3: Old friends

We walked back in the direction Zuko, Aang, Katara and Toph had gone. We had only taken a few steps when we heard a soft females voice say: 'Hello Iroh, Asami, it's nice to finally meet you in person.'

We both turned in the direction of the sound and I saw a beautiful lady with long black hair and amber eyes. She was dressed in old fire nation clothes and smiled lightly. Next to me, Iroh's breath stocked.

'You probably don't recognize me since I haven't lived long enough to be present when you were born.' Here voice was calm and solid.

'I do, you are my great grandmother Ursa, I saw you on the paintings in grandfathers chambers,' Iroh responded quickly. 'It is an honor to meet you.' He wanted to bow, but Ursa prevented him.

'Stand up straightly Iroh, like a prince of the fire nation should.'

Ursa really impressed me. I don't know why, but I admired here beauty and calmness immediately.

In a blink of a moment her calm expression changed to one that belongs on the face of someone who is really nervous. 'Listen, we don't have much time. I have a favour to ask the two of you.'

I raised an eyebrow, what kind of use could we be towards the former Fire Lady.

'Zuko came to see me today to ask for advice about your... situation. As you probably know, I brought up the idea to send you both back into the past. This idea occurred to me, because it was the best thing to do and the safest for the both of you, but I must admit that it also had a little selfless aspect of myself.' She spoke hasty and always looked around nervously. 'Now there is actually someone, or better there are several persons, who need your help.'

When she said this, the girl with the white hair and deep blue eyes appeared. She was completely dressed in white robes and it seemed like she was floating. 'Iroh, Asami may I present you Yue, the Spirit of the Moon.'

I gasped in surprise. Everyone knew the story about Yue, who gave up her live to restore the balance in the world. I think of all the persons I met that day, she was probably the most important one.

'I'm sorry to meet you under such conditions,' Yue said. 'But like Lady Ursa said before, we need your help. You both probably know the reason I gave up my life to become the Spirit of the Moon: to restore the balance. I succeed in this almost completely. However, when Tui was killed, this had a little impact on the upcoming events. Tui and Ta were opposites and this made them fit each other perfectly. Now, there always is a love, somewhere in the world, which resembles the relationship Tui and Ta had, and gives them a kind of mortal appearance it contributes in the balance. This relationship between the two people is always meant to be, however this hasn't been restored when Tui was killed. So the mortal form of Tui and Ta skipped one lifetime.'

She fall silently for a few minutes and I saw my chance to ask: 'With all due respect, but what do we have to do with it?'

Yue gave a quick glance at Ursa who nodded comforting. After that, the moon spirit began talking again: 'Well, the two people who were supposed to be together are acquainted to both of you, although one of you might know them better than the other.' With this she threw a meaningful look at Iroh. 'This two people happen to be Katara and your grandfather, Fire Lord Zuko. We would like you to make them fall in love with each other during your trip to the past.'

Iroh and I exchanged a nervous look. It was already bad enough to go back in the past and sit there doing nothing, but to restore a love which was lost...

Suddenly a thought occurred to me. 'But if we do that, what will happen to Tenzin, Ikki, Jinora, Iroh and all the others? Won't it affect the present?' I asked worried.

Here, Ursa stepped in: 'Just let me take care of that.'

I wasn't really at ease by this response, but we had no other choice than to accept the mission, you don't turn something down from the previous Fire Lady and the Spirit of the Moon.

'Listen, it would be better for everyone if you make it happen, just make sure you don't kill anyone or something like that, because I can't fix all of it,' she continued.

I looked at Iroh, hoping he would answer. He nodded toward Ursa, which counted as an acceptance of the challenge. 'We should leave now, the others are probably wondering what takes you so long,' Ursa said.

Iroh stepped forward and bowed towards both of them and said: 'It was an honor to meet you both.'

'The pleasure was all mine, you don't get to meet your great-grandson every day,' Ursa said with a little smile. Subsequently she turned to me: 'Bye Asami, it was nice to meet you.'

Then they both disappeared without any warning.

Iroh and I walked back toward our former company without saying a word, but we both knew we we're thinking the same: this was going to be tough.

As we arrived, Aang, Zuko, Katara and Toph got to their feet and bowed respectfully. Not for me and Iroh, but for Ursa, who was walking toward us slowly. I noticed she was suddenly dressed in white clothes.

Zuko embraced his mom lovingly. 'It's good to see you back, mom. I miss you so much.'

Even if she had said before she wasn't present at Iroh's birth, it hadn't really crossed my mind yet Ursa was one of the few persons with us who actually was _dead_, but now I saw the Fire Lord almost weeping, I realized, and got emotional myself.

'Now, introduce me to your amazing grandson you told me so much about.'

Zuko wiped off his tears. 'Iroh, this is your great grandmother, Ursa. Ursa, meet your great grandson Iroh and his girlfriend, Asami Sato.'

'It is a pleasure to meet you both.' Ursa embraced me and Iroh like we have never had the opportunity to meet each other before. Behind everyone's back, she winked at us. It was clear that our little previous meeting was strictly secret.

'So,' Aang interrupted the whole family reunion. 'Zuko's mom will guide you to the past, since we aren't competent to do so. Please, Ursa, tell them what is about to happen to them.'

'Okay. First of all, you have to, know this isn't just a pleasurable trip to another era. On the contrary, strange things can happen while you're travelling between two epochs, so I will first have to prepare you while you're both unconscious. Still, I can't prevent you from being attacked mentally by evil Spirits, so make sure you…'

Unlike me, Iroh nodded continuously without showing any emotion. I felt myself getting very pale and imagined an evil Spirit torturing me in every possibly way. It made me so sick I couldn't hear Ursa's advices and explanations anymore. I felt like I was almost going to faint, when fortunately, she finally was done.

Ursa told us to lie down so she could guide us in a state of trance. It felt comforting to close my eyes while the warm voice of Ursa was bringing me to piece again.

I felt a tired feeling came over me as Ursa said her words of farewell. 'Goodbye, Iroh and Asami. You will now travel to the past. I really hope you will succeed.'

The next moment I found myself slipping away.

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**AN: So...Yue and Ursa also made their appearance. Next chapter they will be back in time. LET THE ZUTARA SHIPPING BEGIN! :D We will have update a bit slower now, because unfortunately school started again. As mentioned before, I wrote the larger part of this chapter. I don't know yet how we're going to divide it next time, we'll see. Anyways don't forget to leave a reviewwwwwwwwwwwww! :) **


	4. a flight to family

**AN: I'm sorry it took so long to update, that was mostly my fault. Anyways enjoy the story :D**

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Chapter 4: a flight to family

It felt like I was vertically floating on a sea, although there was no water.I got pushed and pulled up and down, not capable of moving myself.

Seeing was another problem. It didn't matter how hard I tried, I couldn't open, nor close my eyes completely. Still I saw the space I was in changing continuously from color. When I left the Spirit World and entered this… space between present and past, I got surrounded by a black darkness. Then there was a blinding white flash of light which quickly turned into yellow, then orange, then red, purple, blue, green…

Every time the color changed, I went through a wave of strong emotions I had never experienced so strong before. Black made me very down, white shocked, yellow captured, orange nervous, red ashamed, purple sleepy, blue drowning, green painful… All those feelings made me want to jump out of my body, scream anything to the world, even to rack myself. I wanted to bleed.

To make a long story short: I felt like I was losing my mind. No doubt. It couldn't get worse anymore.

Then my feet hit the ground gently, so I could stay again. On… something. Everything still had the same grey color, so I couldn't see what I was standing on.

As I was looking around – fortunately, I could open my eyes again – I saw a women with long, black hair floating very slowly away from me. I wondered why she was wearing a white night gown, and got closer to her. Then I noticed she had an unhealthy looking, pale skin, her eyes were closed, her chest didn't move up, nor down… This women was dead.

Still, I walked toward her, not aware of the fear going through me. Every single step closer, the women looked more and more familiar to me and I got that creepy feeling this was my own body, floating in the underworld.

As I finally reached the women, I took her hand without thinking about it and hold it tightly. She was so unbearably cold, but I just couldn't let her go. It felt like she was absorbing my energy of life. I couldn't think anymore. My head was empty, making me getting more drowse by the minute. Breathing was so difficult and complicated. I was dying. Like that, I just knew it.

Then, I looked up to admire the women's beautiful face, and recognized my mother.

When I finally felt some ground beneath my feet, I immediately dropped down to my knees. I was exhausted, mentally and physical. I sat on my hands and knees for a couple of minutes 'till I finally found the strength to lift my head up and think again. My thoughts went straightly to Iroh, and I was relieved when I saw him lying next to me. He was in an even worse condition than I was. I wasn't sure if he was conscious. He just laid there, still, while he was breathing heavily.

I looked around me and noticed we were in the corner of a huge room. Azula's room. Judging by her behavior and the stories I heard about her, she wasn't exactly the person you wanted to meet. We had to get out of here. I struggled up with all the strength I had and got up to my legs. Then I looked to Iroh, who was trying to do the same but didn't quiet succeed. I grabbed him by his arm and wanted to help him get up, but he shook me off. "I'm fine, I can do this myself," he said.

I sighed, such a typical thing for him to say. I thought his stubbornness was actually quiet cute, but we didn't have any time for it now.

"Listen, this is Azula's room we're standing in, you know, your evil ancestor who wanted to let us die in the fuggy swamp? Just accept my help Iroh, you're in no condition to walk if I don't support you a little and we need to hurry up if we even want to make it out of the palace," I knew him well enough to cognize he would give in now.

He shook his head. I could see from his eyes he was terribly tired. With my help he got up slowly. I started walking with my arm around Iroh to support him. He guided me through the corridors he knew, this however didn't always work out quite well 'cause the palace had changed over the past 70 years. The guards didn't help as well, every time one of them passed I had to drag Iroh into the closest room, begging the spirits that it was empty.

We weren't exactly unnoted with our futuristic clothes. If anyone would see us the would see two strangers wandering through the palace, dressed in strange clothes and consider us as a threat.

It all went well 'till a few corridors before the exit. We had the bad luck to bump into a guard as we turned a corner. The guard looked at us for a few seconds, as if we were sky bison's, before he started shouting for reinforcement. We started running fast in the other direction, but it was already too late. Guards came from everywhere.

Iroh cursed and directed me into a different corridor. 'We can get to another exit through this corridor. There will, however be guards there, not that it matters anything now,' he said.

I was worried about him, he sounded so weak.

We ran as fast as we could and finally made it to the front gate of the palace. There were two guards stationed in front of it. The first one started shooting fireballs in our direction as soon as he noticed us. Iroh jumped forward and blocked the attacks so it wouldn't harm us. He was, however not able to do more than that because he was still quite weakened.

The other guard fired a wave of fire at me. I dodged it narrowly and hit him harshly in his stomach. He collapsed behind me. One guard less to take care of.

It felt like we had run for hours as Iroh finally swung a huge door open and I could feel the fresh air brushing my face again. We paused for a moment to breathe regularly again and then, while I supported Iroh, we ran through the streets as fast as we could. The people looked curiously at us as we ran by, chased by a few guards.

Eventually we were able to escape from the guards through some small alleys. We stood still for a few seconds, both heavily breathing and exhausted by the effort.

'Are you all right?' I knew he wouldn't admit it even if he was nearly fainting, but still asked it.

As I already suspected, Iroh looked away and didn't answer my question. 'We need somewhere we can rest and we're out of sight.'

I rolled my eyes. He meant we needed somewhere HE could rest. 'As we were running, I saw an abandoned house, maybe we can…'

'Sounds great, where was it?' Iroh interrupted me and stood up straightly.

We both didn't say a word till we reached the house, of which some windows were broken and the roof was missing at some points. You could see immediately it had been vacant for a while.

Iroh walked high-minded toward the door. I stopped him with my hand without looking at him and forced the door myself.

Iroh sighed and entered the house. On the second floor, we found a little mattress on the ground. We dropped down on it next to each other and fell asleep.

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**AN: So...I hope you guys liked it ;) No zutara yet, but it gets closer... :) *exciting smile* We both wrote about a half of the story, Genora took mostly care of the vision. Don't forget to leave a review :D**


	5. Bad Dreams

**AN: (Genora) we're very very very sorry for the long wait, blame xjustmexx and the exams! :) So finally here is chapter 5, hope you enjoy! **

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Chapter 5: Bad Dreams

'No! Wait for me! No!' I ran as fast as I could, but couldn't reach her. If I slowed down, she slowed down, if I ran faster, she flew faster. I felt tortured. Why didn't she wait for me?

I fell on my knees as I realised I was never going to reach her. She would just keep torturing me. There was no end.

I looked up and saw mom watching me. She called me. I could hear her weak voice repeating my name over and over. She wanted me to reach her. I knew it.

I pulled myself together and stood up very weary. 'Come on, Asami. You can do it.'

I thought mom would fly away again as soon as I took one step towards her, but she didn't. She just lay there, on nothing, floating in the black space we were in, watching how I was getting closer to her. And I did. Every single step I took, was one step closer to her. It felt as bad as entering the underworld, but I didn't stop. Not now. Not as I finally was about to be with my mom again.

'Asami.' The raspy voice made me shiver. Where was the soft voice of my mom?

All of the sudden it was freezing cold. I couldn't feel my body anymore, but still succeeded to move on somehow. 'I'm coming, mom.' I whispered.

A few steps and I was going to be with my mom again. Five steps, maybe six, and I could finally touch her. I couldn't hold it anymore and began running. It looked more like jumping on the spot, but I was nearly there.

Suddenly, a tear ran down mom's face, making me cry as well. 'I'm here, mom, I'm with you. Don't cry.' I wanted to say, but I couldn't speak anymore.

I was so close to her now. I wanted to take the final step, but it seemed like I had reached an invisible wall I couldn't walk through. I just stood there, half a meter away from my mom, my hand reaching out to her, unable of speaking.

I fell on my knees and watched how mom was still crying. For a moment, her green eyes met mine and she felt very she closed her eyes and floated away from me again.

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I felt a tear streaming down my face as I woke up slowly. I rubbed my eyes and looked around. The sun was up already. Iroh lay next to me and was still asleep. According to his frown, he seemed to have a bad dream. I laid my head on his chest, so I could hear his heart beating. A cosy feeling settled down in me. I always felt so save with him.

All of the sudden, Iroh began talking in his dream. 'No! Go away! Leave me alone!'

I noticed his fist coming down on me too late, so it hit me on my shoulder. I screamed in surprise and immediately pushed myself away from him. My shoulder hurt so badly. How did he hit me so hard while he was sleeping!?

When Iroh began to hit the mattress again, I decided this was going too far. This wasn't just an innocent nightmare anymore. He was reliving the trip to the past again, just like I had relived my dream of mom. I carefully shook Iroh's shoulder, ready to flee in case he would try to hit me again. Fortunately he woke up without doing any harm to himself or me. He looked startled around and sighted in relief as he saw me.

'You had a nightmare.' I said.

Iroh looked tiredly at me and nodded. 'Indeed, I did.'

'What was it about? You were screaming to someone to leave you alone.'

There was a long silence. I crept a bit closer to him and he laid an arm around me.

'Some Spirits still are a bit... angry for what my ancestors did, and they seem to think I'm the ideal person to work their anger of.'

Again silence, I didn't know how to respond on that. He wouldn't want me to comfort him, I knew him well enough to be sure of that, and there was nothing I could do about it. I decided I wouldn't tell him my nightmare. He first had to deal with his own problems before he had to worry about mine.

We sat there for a couple of minutes in complete silence, we both didn't really know what we were supposed to do, or even say. Eventually it was Iroh who found the courage to say something.

'I'm sorry Asami.' The words were so small, but at the same time so meaningful.

'Why would you be sorry?' I asked, although I already knew where this was going.

'You know why.' He never had been good with words. I looked away from him. It was such a typical thing for Iroh to blame himself.

'It wasn't your fault Iroh, it was no-one's fault.'

'But it WAS my fault, Asami. I pulled you inside of that closet and started kissing you. If you hadn't met me you wouldn't even have entered the stupid palace. Neither would you have to deal with my ancestors.'

'But I have met you,' I continued as I shoved my head underneath his arm, so I lay on his chest. 'and I still didn't regret it. You should stop blaming yourself Iroh, it won't get us any further.'

He didn't respond and I didn't want to look up at his face, 'cause I know it would result in a kiss then, and there was still something I wanted to ask.

'Were they happy?'

I looked into his amber coloured eyes which expressed an unspoken question.

'Your grandparents,' I explained.

His eyes shifted away from mine and he sighed. 'I don't know,' he said his voice sounded a little raw and distracted. He sank away in his thoughts. I thought I wouldn't get more out of him about the subject when he sighed frustrated and put his head between his two hands.

'I don't know,' He shook his head as in confusion and despair.

'I have been wondering the same. They were happy together, of course, and they loved each other. But maybe it wasn't true love and would they've been happier with someone else, I don't know.' He paused for a second and it looked like he was going through all his memories and tried to find an answer to my question.

He seemed tired and I knew he needed some rest and privacy to get his mind straight.

'I think it's best if I'm going to explore the area a little bit and look for some food,' I said gently. He looked at me in surprise.

'I don't know Asami, this is a different time, and a strange area for you, it isn't safe,' I already expected him to say something like that so I had my answer already prepared.

'Come on Iroh we need some food and there has to be some moment we are going to leave this place. You know it has to be done by one of us, and you are in no condition to go anywhere.'

I saw him hesitating. I was almost there.

'Please, if you don't do it for yourself, then do it for me.' I kissed him and wheedled my head against him.

Iroh moaned. 'All right then, but promise me you won't stay away too long or do dangerous things.'

'You've got my word.'

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**AN: so Asami is about to explore the city on her own! The Zutara parts are coming closer and closer! Hope you liked it and leave a review! We'll try to update sooner this time! ;)**


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